Monday, March 29, 2010

Juxtapoz: Travis Jensen

I meant to post this one a long time ago but life caught up. Better late than never!

Check out our good friend Travis Jensen (a.k.a. the SF Masher) being interviewed in Juxtapoz Magazine. The opening photograph with Travis standing in front of a giant wall of cassette tapes, provides a fitting introduction to how our lives originally intersected.

I've told this story many times, our paths collided through a mutual love of west coast underground rap, trading tapes and stories, and generally geeking out on music. He was the first person to ever play me Joe's music, excitedly I might add, on a short train ride to Shane Nesbitt's Below the Surface store in Burlingame. Travis went on to write a book of short stories, brave the bright lights of the big city, and as Issac mentioned "make it" where others before him have failed. Travis' story is familiar but inspiring.

He also wrote the liner notes for the back cover of The Walk which has always been a favorite of mine. Stories like those have always meant more to us than selling cd's. He also hosted the Walk release party in San Francisco.

Travis Jensen is currently writing a novel, raising his newborn son Stan, hanging with his beautiful wife Eva, curating art shows, and engaging in a newly found obsession with photography. We are proud to count him as a friend.

In a semi related observation, is it just me or do writers gravitate to photography because it is the antithesis to the structured discipline of writing? All of my big-brained friends have caught the shutter bug, some hobbyists and some doing it professionally, but all seem to comment on being drawn to the rush of pulling the trigger and it's now or never finality.